“You think he is a detective kid?”
“Yes.”
“You’re off,” said one of the men.
“Am I?”
“Yes.”
“You feel sure?”
“Yes, that is as innocent a lad as ever lived. If he had been a detective kid do you suppose he would have admitted all he overheard?”
“That is just where his smart work comes in. He has evidently fooled you.”
“No, you have fooled yourself, old man. I’ll stake my life he is no detective ‘kid.’”
The man who was stating the objections was the owner of the house, the one who had been acting as chairman during the “confab” to which our hero had been a listener.